Qaeda commander plans terror mission against India

December 19, 2009 13:50 IST

The Al Qaeda, along with the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, has decided to launch a terror mission against India, according to sources in the Intelligence Bureau. The mission is called Ghazwa-e-Hind (Battle against India), said sources, and cadres of the two terror outfits have been apprised about it.

Ilyas Kashmiri, commander of Qaeda's 313 brigade, has informed all his cadres that they should be prepared to sacrifice their lives for a 'noble cause' like Ghazwa-e-Hind.

Kashmiri was helped by David Headley, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in early October in Chicago, said IB sources.

Headley conducted the reconnaissance of several likely terror targets across India and he has provided details about them to Kashmiri, said sources.

Kashmiri has already indicated that the Al Qaeda has outlined a terror plot for India which is far more destructive than the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai.

IB sources suspect that the Ghazwa-e-Hind will conducted by carrying out terror attacks with the help of fidayeens (suicide squads).

According to intelligence reports, Kashmiri has trained over 100 youths in Pakistan for this operation and is also relying heavily on local support to carry out strikes in various Indian cities.

The boldness that Kashmiri has exhibited by announcing his plans to strike terror in India indicates that he might be getting support from the Inter Services Intelligence. The ISI and the dreaded terrorist reportedly had a fall-out earlier, and they had been working separately since then.

Former IB chief Ajit B Doval had told rediff.com earlier that the threat from Al Qaeda should be understood and dealt with as an ideological movement, rather than a hierarchically structured terrorist outfit. He had cautioned that the Qaeda's ideology and methodology could prove to be dangerous.

Terror outfits like the LeT and the HuJI, which owe allegiance to Qaeda, have been targeting India.

Kashmiri, once a trusted aide of Pakistan's spy agency, has also served in the country's elite Special Services Group. He was trained in Pakistan's Special Operations Unit. Acting on the ISI's instructions, he set up the HuJI in early 1990s, with its headquarter in Bangladesh.

But his relations with the ISI soured after Kashmiri turned down the spy agency's request to join the Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Both ideologically and operationally, he constitutes an imminent threat as he is capable of mounting terrorist actions against India, through the HUJI terrorists based in Bangladesh.